help on achieving a good acoustic guitar sound

[shredfusion]

with this gear:

seymour duncan woody acoustic guitar pickup
firewire410
ableton

would it be better to ditch the pickup and mic the guitar?

i tried running the pickup direct into the 410, i tried micing my acoustic amp, i tried the line out on the amp to the line in on the 410, no luck..

sufjan stevens has a great acousitc sound, im going for something similar to that.

thanks a lot

[eyeknow]

I'll tell ya this much.....it's tough in that unless you have just INSANE quality mics/preamps, you have to use tricks.

One thing we did once (oh it's been some years) was useing a rode right up against the next near the top body, along with the "direct" plug in. One thing about that technique is you have to be super still when recording so it would help to have someone else doing the daw stuff.

[forge]

w
would it be better to ditch the pickup and mic the guitar?

my word yes

I cant stand pick ups on recordings - they are for live use IMO

you really want a nice condenser mic, the 410 has phantom power

I got a Groove-tube GT-55 quite cheap at Digital village in the UK a few years ago - you can get some quite decent cheap stuff these days

[terryhamel]

Personally, I prefer the sound of an acoustic guitar recorded with a condensor mic. However, the sound of any pickup MAY be the sound you want. Plenty of music has been recorded both ways. The decision is what sound YOU want.

If you go with a mic, you can record and play yourself at the same time. I've done it. It's just easier with another person.

-Terry

[BeatPsychic]

I personally would go the mic route... while i attended recording school(quite a few years ago) we did a comparison between 12 different mics on an acoustic. Everything from a Shure SM57 to a Neumann U47(couple thousand dollars for those unfamiliar)... the winner, the Octava MK012...one of my favorite mics to this day, and can be purchased for around 150 USD(i just looked on ebay and found a stereo pair for 270)... positioned correctly, this mic sounds amazing on acoustic guitar, piano, and a number of other instruments...check 'em out if you can....

[Raveon]

you might get some good results using the zoom A2 processor for acoustic guitars. I've used it on recordings and it sounds awesome.

[shredfusion]

thanks for the replies

[forge]

another question: what is different about a condensor mic?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condenser_ ... icrophones

[shredfusion]

deleted

[Johnisfaster]

thanks for the replies dudes.

i just bought the pickup for 50 bucks today, so for now ill just try to make it sound as good as possible with effects.

on accoustic guitar you probably only want to use eq and maybe reverb, unless you want something unusual I'd recommend only sticking to those 2.

oh yeah, maybe compression, but only if you know what you're doing with it.

[terryhamel]

Condensor mics reproduce higher frequencies far more accurately than dynamic mics.

The HOW is technical - condensors use electrically charged plates that respond to higher frequency (e.g. 10khz +) sound pressures than a dynamic mic. Dynamic mics are based on a spring which has an inherent tension that doesn't respond as fast (or at all) to those same frequencies.

With a condensor, you can capture the zing, ching, sheen, or ting sounds of your instrument. For acoustic guitar, this means the finger brush, pluck, and hand movement as well as the brilliance of the strings themself. You can't capture it as well (or at all) with a dynamic mic.

There is a downside (if it is one) - condensors are fragile. A high enough mic drop or high enough sound pressure level (like a kick drum or directly on the side of a high hat) could blow the mic. Dynamic mics, being a mechanical spring, don't have this problem.

-Terry

[shredfusion]

thanks a lot terry, very good to know.